We’ve had a fantastic and varied week that was full of fun and learning.
Thank you so much for sending in your recycling items. We were able to use these items to help us with our maths project called, ‘Playing with Shapes’. The children are learning about the properties of 2D and 3D shape and there’s no better way to learn that than to explore shape practically while in play. The children are learning the mathematical vocabulary to help them make sense of the shapes and add to their descriptive vocabulary. This week the children used their thinking skills to – select shapes to make a building, reflect on the success of their build and their choice of shapes, learned to use words such as faces, corners, edges, flat, curved and more. The children played a game using a feely box or bag to identity the shapes using their knowledge and vocabulary. They also created 2D art using the faces of the 3D shapes. It has been a very fun and full learning experience for all of us! Next week we bring the project to its next stage. We will ask the children to build a model again and they will be able to use the knowledge, understanding and skill they have built up during last week in a Key Assessment Task (KAT). We will then gather the various pieces they have worked on in a document and will share them with you so you can see and comment on their wonderful work! We will let you know when we are sending the KAT home.
If you are coming to see us next week for an open afternoon you may see that we have lots of bags of junk modelling in the classroom. This is only until they have completed their task. Apologies that the class is not as tidy as usual. ☺️
In phonics we introduced the /D/d/ and /G/g/ sounds and letters. When learning the formation for these letters, we revised the lowercase/a/ letter. We’ve been revising the other sounds we’ve been taught and also learning the common words: I, the, to, do and into.
Our writing stimulus this week was…I am throwing leaves! We had such fun throwing the leaves and then reflecting on the experience when writing.
As part of our health and wellbeing work, we listened to a story that helped us think about different kinds of emotions and started to think about which of the four Zones of Regulation these would belong in. The children have been great at discussing their zones during the week. This has also helped us think about our class goal of being kind which is also part of our whole school focus this term. Our other class goal has been about respecting resources in the classroom and part of this includes working as a team to tidy up. We have been doing an amazing job and Mrs Leakey and Mrs Howitt have been very impressed!
In gym, we revised our previous gymnastics shapes and added the straddle shape as well as developing a range of other skills including balance and hand eye coordination.
To help to develop and extend our play, I asked if some of the P2/3 children could come and talk about some of the constructions they’ve been making in their class out of Kapla and other construction materials. On Tuesday they came to share their learning by sharing and talking about photographs of their constructions. On Wednesday they came back as ‘Building Buddies’ to help inspire our next steps in construction 🚧. The children were very excited and both events have simulated new and exciting learning. We hope the Building Buddies can come back to teach us more! Thank you! 🤩
On Friday, we were treated to two special events. We got a personal invite to the P2/3 class assembly about the Egyptians and we also attended a panto performance of Aladdin! The children loved it! It was lovely to watch them sing, dance and get involved in the back and fore of panto banter!
We hope you had a great weekend. See you on Monday!